DHAKA, Aug 21, 2021 (BSS) - Fisheries and Livestock Minister SM Rezaul Karim today said that the barbaric grenade attack on August 21, 2004, was the continuation of the incident that took place on August 15, 1975.

"It was not an isolated incident and the events of August 15, 1975 were also the continuation of the barbaric and brutal crimes against humanity that took place in 1971," he said.

The minister was speaking as the chief guest at a condolence meeting and doa mahfil in Necharabad upazila of Pirojpur district organized by the upazila Awami League in memory of the victims of the August 21, 2004, grenade attack, said a press release here.

"Those who raped our mothers and sisters in 1971, torched houses, killed three million people, forcibly converted and expelled them from the country, their goal was not to establish Bangladesh with the spirit of liberation war," he said.  

"They couldn’t succeed then because of Bangabandhu's indomitable courage and our heroic freedom fighters," he added.

"On August 15, 1975, the same clique led by Ziaur Rahman killed Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and most of his family members... They thought it was all over but after the return of Sheikh Hasina and Sheikh Rehana, they realized that Sheikh Hasina and Sheikh Rehana would certainly finish the unfinished works of Bangabandhu," SM Rezaul Karim further said.

"For that, they tried to assassinate Sheikh Hasina at least 19 times," he said.

 Necharabad upazila Awami League president Md Abdul Hamid presided over the programme while upazila nirbahi officer Md Mosharraf Hossain, Necharabad Police Station officer in-charge Abir Mohammad Hossain, Jubo League leader Kamruzzaman Khan Shamim, among others, were present on the occasion.